Staple removers are known in the art and are devices generally used for removing staples from a stack of sheets of paper stapled together. Two main types of staple removers can be found in the prior art. A first one, known as the jaw type staple remover, consists of a pair of hinged opposing jaws usable for grasping and removing a staple. The other type, known as the blade type staple remover, generally consists of a handle with a pointed, sharp tip blade protruding from one end. In this case, the pointed blade is inserted and forwarded under the crown of a staple to be removed until the latter is fully pulled out from the pile of paper sheets. Furthermore, the handle is generally hollow and acts as a storage compartment for retaining the used staples.
Typical examples of the prior art are U.S. Pat. No. 5,653,424, to Khan (Aug. 5, 1997), U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,951, to Rogers (Apr. 30, 1985), U.S. Pat. No. 3,625,482, to Veil (Dec. 7, 1971) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,788B1, to Ashe (Feb. 4, 2003).
While these staple removers of the prior art can generally fulfill the main objective of removing staples from a stack of sheets of paper, or the like, they also offer one or more of the following disadvantages:
a) they generally include an elongated staple removing blade that also serves as a storage ramp for the used staples. The used staples cumulating on the ramp can have their clenched legs entangled together and literally jam the rearward tossing of the staples on the ramp;
b) the cumulated staples on the storage ramp generally have to be removed from the ramp by hand since the staple legs generally preserve their tendency to spring back to their clenched configuration and, thus, are prone to stay clenched to the ramp;
c) they generally have an elongated and narrow handle-casing offering only limited stability and, thus, rendering the device difficult to manipulate during a staple removal operation;
Against this background, there exist a need for a new and improved staple remover that avoids the aforementioned disadvantages. It is a general object of the present invention to provide a new and improved staple remover.